Legend of the package delivering hero

[Jens_S]

Hi!

My second entry this year is an avoid’em’up-game, with lots of different enemies and power ups.

The human race is under attack from outer space. You are the package delivering hero, a man of wit and honor. You need to deliver secret packages to human bases in the solar system. But outer space is dangerous, and you need to avoid being caught by the alien ships!

Take part in this deep engaging story driven sci-fi game, and stop the aliens from taking over our galaxy. You are our only hope!

Please check it out here:
http://java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=454

[Best_Username_Ever]

The directions refer to shooting an enemy. You can only avoid things in the game though, right?
I like the background. The pink cloud looks a little to square.

[Jens_S]

@Best_Username_Ever

The directions refer to shooting an enemy. You can only avoid things in the game though, right?
I like the background. The pink cloud looks a little to square.

Thanks. It was possible shoot enemies first (there were even different kinds of weapons), but I removed that option because I felt the game was funnier to play without it. I forgot to update the enemy descriptions - thanks for pointing it out! I’ve fixed it now.

[StephR]

Your concept - avoid’em’up - is original. I don’t remember playing such a game. And the gameplay is rather enjoyable.

At the end of each delivering mission, the player’s ship may have to dock to a slightly moving space station. This new game phase would add to the interest of the game. And then you would have the fundation for a 2D arcade version of Elite !

Also, consider changing the shape of your power-ups to a square, for example, so the player will be less likely to mistake them with enemies.

Ideally, improve all your graphics. Purple enemies may become meteors, cyan ones comets, the chasing ones saucers…

[Jens_S]

@StephR

Your concept - avoid’em’up - is original. I don’t remember playing such a game. And the gameplay is rather enjoyable.

At the end of each delivering mission, the player’s ship may have to dock to a slightly moving space station. This new game phase would add to the interest of the game. And then you would have the fundation for a 2D arcade version of Elite !

Also, consider changing the shape of your power-ups to a square, for example, so the player will be less likely to mistake them with enemies.

Ideally, improve all your graphics. Purple enemies may become meteors, cyan ones comets, the chasing ones saucers…

Thanks for your feedback!

Ah, Elite. I remember the docking episodes - it was very hard, and very easy to crash! ;D

It’s probably a good idea to change the shape of the power ups. For color-blind people it’s probably impossible to see the difference between enemies and powerups. I had not really thought about that…

It would be awesome with general graphics improvements, but there is not very much space left unfortunately (to many enemy types). But I might be able to prioritize away one of the enemies, and maybe save some bytes here and there …

[Jens_S]

Thanks for all feedback.

I’ve made some changes to the game:

• Improved enemy graphics.
• One new enemy: the cannon.
• Different coloured background clouds for different levels.
• Removed one enemy: the narrower. Nice idea (maybe?), but didn’t work very well in practice.

The new version is uploaded to Java4k.

[StephR]

Your ship controls are very smooth. They may be the best feature of your game.

Concerning the last modifications, I regret there was no improvement of the player’s ship graphics. Also, I’m not convinced by the new enemy cannon.

Older features still cause problems. Your star clouds are too dense and then too squared. The game is not difficult enough in my opinion. You should find some ways to make it more thrilling.

One cheap suggestion : increase the vertical scrolling speed on the vertical position of the player’s ship - the higher the speeder. The score should increase consequently as the player would arrive sooner at her/his destination.

[Jens_S]

There are not many bytes left, but I’ve made some small changes:

• Nicer space graphics. The cloud are less blocky, and the stars are little bit more blurry. The background looks better, and there’s a greater contrast between the enemies and the background.
• The difficulty level is a bit more balanced. The game had a more “adaptive” difficulty level before, but it didn’t work out very well. I think the difficulty level is more predictable now.
• You’ll get one extra health point every third level (to compensate for the increased difficulty).

StephR: I tried your suggestions. It’s a fun idea, but I think I would have needed a few extra bytes to make it work really well with the rest of the game. Maybe this will be something for “The package delivering hero returns” next year.

[StephR]

The game is much more challenging and interesting to play now, IMHO.